US open: Stocks waver ahead of Yellen speech

US stocks wavered on Tuesday as investors awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen for hints on the timing of the next change to interest rates.

At 1523 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.19%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.15% and the Nasdaq rose 0.07%

“Trading decisions made by investors will be very much confined by the upcoming US nonfarm payrolls data, which is due on Friday. But, before that, we have a speech by the president of the Federal Reserve committee later on today” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

“If her speech confirms the dovish stance today and the US NFP also verifies that the employment component with respect to wage growth is not robust, then the expectations of another rate in the second quarter of this year could be quelled,” Aslam added.

Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes, however, seemed to think Yellen’s speech would provide little in the way of clues to investors.

“The danger is that she is very balanced/neutral. It’s hard to see why she would seek to signal the possibility of an imminent rate hike after recent data, but she will clearly want to support the market in pricing in hikes this year.

“Net result, she won’t be much help and we may wait for Friday for economic clues.”

Yellen’s speech at the Economic Club of New York Luncheon is due at 1620 BST.

Ahead of her speech, Standard&Poor´s Case Shiller home price index rose 5.4% year-on-year in January compared to 5.74% the previous month and analysts' expectations for 5.75%.

The Conference Board’s index of US consumer confidence rose to 96.2 in March from an upwardly revised 94.0 in February. Analysts had expected a reading of 94.

"The rebound in the Conference Board measure of consumer confidence to 96.2 in March, from 94.0, suggests that the rebound in stock markets more than offset the impact of higher gasoline prices in recent weeks," Capital Economics said.

"It also suggests that the apparent slowdown in real consumption growth to around 2.0% annualised in the first quarter should be short lived."

Meanwhile, oil prices were in the red. West Texas Intermediate was down 3.3% to $38.11 a barrel while Brent crude was off 3.1% at $39.03.

In company news Yahoo shares edged higher after the Wall Street Journalreported that the company was giving potential suitors two weeks to submit preliminary bids for its core web business and Asian assets.

JetBlue Airways and Alaska Air Group were also in the black amid expectations they will make takeover offers for Virgin America by the end of the week.

On the downside, SunEdison shares tumbled on news the renewable energy group was being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.